Teams from 15 Ohio middle schools competed with custom built models of their future cities complete with moving parts, lights, mirrors, four-sided custom models and many more features in Ohio’s regional DiscoverE Future City Competition held January 20, 2018 at Eastland Career & Technical Center in Groveport.

The top five finishers in the Ohio competition are:

· First Place – Heritage Middle School, Westerville;

· Second Place – Batavia Local Schools, Batavia;

· Third Place – Oakwood Middle School, Canton;

· Fourth Place – Indian Hills Middle School, Cincinnati; and

· Fifth Place – Cardinal Middle School, Middlefield.

The Ohio region winning team from Heritage Middle School includes presenters Will Pyle, Kimberlee Welch and Mahad Yusuf who will be traveling to Washington D.C. to participate in national finals during National Engineer’s Week February 17–20, 2018. The students will compete against the winners of over 40 other regional competitions.

The competition provides sixth, seventh and eighth grade students an opportunity to learn about engineering, planning, architecture and project management through a series of deliverables. Teams first design a city using SimCity software that illustrates futuristic ideas and components and write an essay describing their city, focusing on this year’s theme, “The Age-Friendly City.” Each team then constructs a scale model of their city, using recycled material in a creative way, to illustrate how their city will function. Professional engineers judge the teams on their oral presentation, city model, computer design, essay and overall project plan.

In addition, 15 special awards were issued, sponsored by companies and organizations throughout Ohio:

· Best Architectural Model – American Institute of Architects, Columbus

· Best Land Surveying Practices – National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES)

First place – Perry Middle School, Perry

Honorable Mention – Heritage Middle School, Westerville

· People’s Choice Award – Battelle Memorial Institute

First place – Oakwood Middle School, Canton

Honorable Mention – Batavia Middle School, Batavia

DiscoverE’s Future City Competition™ is a national, not-for-profit education program. Across the country, typically more than 40,000 students from 1,350 middle schools participate in the competition, with a top prize for the National Finals of $7,500 for the school’s STEM program, plus a trip to U.S. Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. For more details and photos of Ohio’s competition, visit: https:/futurecity.org/ohio